All Robert Reich

The Democratic nominee for President will campaign on reviving the American middle class. But will she take on the moneyed interests – the large Wall Street banks, big corporations, and richest Americans – who have engineered the largest upward redistribution of wealth in modern American history?

Independent contractors, including Uber drivers, franchisees, consultants, and free lancers, are subject to low pay, irregular hours, and job insecurity. In order to protect these workers, we need a better way to determine who qualifies as an employee of a company.

I used to believe in trade agreements like the upcoming Trans Pacific Partnership. That was before the wages of most Americans stagnated and a relative few at the top captured just about all the economic gains.

With the rise of on-demand jobs like Uber, we're reverting back to a 19th-century job market where 'freedom of contract' ruled the day. It was an era when many workers were 'happy' to toil 12-hour days in sweat shops for lack of any better alternative.

Uber, Airbnb,Instacart, and other multibillion dollar startups make up what is referred to as the 'share economy.' A more accurate term would be the 'share-the-scraps' economy,' one that allows workers to patch together barely enough to live on.

Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney have outlined plans to reverse widening income inequality, alleviate poverty, and provide 'opportunity for all.' However, evidence suggests that almost every time a Republican has moved into the White House, his policies have widened inequality.

For worker wages to rise, the unemployment rate would have to sink far lower than it is today, probably below 4 percent. And there’s reason to believe the link between falling unemployment and rising wages has been severed.

Since 2000, the incomes of young people who have graduated college have barely risen. The problem is this; while a college education is now a prerequisite for joining the middle class, the middle class is in lousy shape. A college degree no longer guarantees a good job.

Private university endowments are now around $550 billion, centered in a handful of prestigious institutions. Public universities, by contrast, have little or no endowment income. They get almost all their funding from state governments, and those subsidies have been shrinking.

In America, people with lots of money can avoid the consequences of bad bets and big losses by cashing out at the first sign of trouble – like Donald Trump and his ill-fated Atlantic City casinos. But workers who move to a place like Atlantic City for a job, invest in a home there, and build their skills, have no protections

For years, some of the nation’s most talented young people have flocked to Harvard Business School and other elite business schools in order to take up positions at the top rungs of American corporations. But are they learning the right lessons about helping society thrive?

Berkely, Calif. is facing major opposition from the beverage industry for its proposed soda tax, which will be on the ballot in November. The beverage industry has spent millions defeating such measures across the country, but can it do so in America's most progressive city?

Detroit's bankruptcy is a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they’d otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans. Are Detroit, its public employees, poor residents, and bondholders the only ones who should sacrifice when 'Detroit' can’t pay its bills? Or does the relevant sphere of responsibility include Detroit’s affluent suburbs?

Americans are sick of politics. A large portion of the public doesn’t even bother voting, assuming the political game is fixed. The only way back toward a democracy and economy that work for the majority is for most of us to get politically active once again, becoming organized and mobilized.